I have created this blog to share my interest in all forms of stitching, quilting, sewing, knitting, medieval re-enactment and costume making – particularly my love of historical embroidery

New beginnings

We have just come back from dropping Ellie off at Uni – it was a lovely sunny weekend – very warm which Ellie was very pleased about as she was hoping that moving down South would mean less Yorkshire rain!

She has settled in very well – we moved her into her hall on the Sat so here are some pics of her new digs.

Chandler Hall where Ellie is now living

Ellie looking out of her window

Not a very good pic but this is Ellie's room in hall

We took her to Sainsburys so she could do her first shop on her own as she is now fully self catering in her little kitchen below.

The hall of residence kitchen

She is having a great time – has made lots of friends already and has been out the last two nights at the Students’ Union. She has hall accommodation on campus which is only 140 paces from the union building so she has not far to come home after a night out! (she told me off for counting how far it was!)

We spent Sat afternoon shopping in Worcester which is a very pretty city – it has a lovely cathedral right by the river. Sat night we went for a very nice meal with my sister Jacky and her kids Sam and Sarah. Ellie is looking forward to being able to spend more time with her cousins, as are me and Jake when we go and visit.

Sam, Jake and Sarah

I am sure Ellie is going to have a wonderful time – I clearly remember leaving home and moving to college 27 years ago and I loved every minute of it so I am sure she will have an excellent time. We will miss her of course but I so pleased that she has got where she wanted to be. She really deserves it after all her hard work over the last two years and has not let anything deter her from her goals.

I have had an exciting new start as well as I have begun a Creative Textiles class through my local Adult Education Service. The first meeting was today and I had an excellent time in the company of a group of women who like me wish to improve their creative and technical skills and a lovely tutor called Brownwyn.

Today we did some transfer printing – I have actually bought some transfer paper but was not certain what to do with it. Bronwyn had printed some fish pictures which we colored in with pens then ironed on to fabric , sewed onto to a felt backing then stuffed. I now need to quilt and add beads to my little fish but I am very pleased with him so far.

My little multicoloured fish!

In the coming weeks we are going to do transfer inks, batik, machine embroidery and quilting. I have homework for next week’s class which I am planning to do on Sunday looking at some inspiration for my printing.

I am also planning to join a Knit and Natter group that meets locally which one of the other women at the group goes to so will have lots of lovely textile related fun going on each week!

Yes I will – I have wanted to do a class for ages and nearly did it last year but life got in the way a bit! Once I have done some work and built up a portfolio I want to do my City and Guilds Diploma so that will hopefully happen sometime next year.